The Body in Biblical, Christian and Jewish Texts

by Taylor, Joan E.

• ISBN13: 9780567254269
• ISBN10: 0567254267
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-08-14
• Publisher: Bloomsbury T&T Clark

Summary

The body is an entity on which religious ideology is printed. Thus it is frequently a subject of interest, anxiety, prescription and regulation in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, as well as in early Christian and Jewish writings. Issues such as the body's age, purity, sickness, ability, gender, sexual actions, marking, clothing, modesty or placement can revolve around what the body is and is not supposed to be or do.

The Body in Biblical, Christian and Jewish Texts comprises a range of inter-disciplinary and creative explorations of the body as it is described and defined in religious literature, with chapters largely written by new scholars with fresh perspectives. This is a subject with wide and important repercussions in diverse cultural contexts today.

Author Biography

Joan E. Taylor is the prize-winning author of Christians and the Holy Places, and a leading authority on the Jewish world of Jesus, including women within that world. She is Professor of Christian Origins and Second Temple Judaism at King's College London.

Table of Contents

Introduction - Joan E. Taylor/1. The Body Inscribed: A Priestly Initiative - Sandra Jacobs/2. 'You're
born naked & the rest is drag': Cross-dressing, Penetration, and the Construction of the Gendered Body in the Hebrew Bible - Steffan Mathias/3. 'Two by two': The Ark-etypal Language of Mark's Apostolic Pairings - Joan Taylor/4. 'In out, in out, shake it all about': Mark 7 and the Concept of the Body - Michelle Fletcher/5. Jesus' Gentile healings: The absence of physical contact and the requirement of faith - Rebecca Harrocks/6. 'This is my Body': Jewish Blessing or Thyestean Banquet? - Katie Turner/7. Paul's Body Talk - Dr. Edward Adams/8. Violating the Inviolable Body -
Picturing Women in Antiquity - Rosie Ratcliffe/9. Josephus' Attitude to Circumcision - a Detailed Discussion of Josephan Circumcision Narratives - Davina Grojnowski/10. Death through Sex:Self-destruction of the Male Body in Two Sugyot in the Babylonian Talmud - Laliv Clenman/11. Blogging the Clothing Religious: Embodying Religious Practice in the Online Space - Ella Fitzsimmons